3.25PM: MEMBER for Indi Sophie Mirabella has today responded to offensive text messages sent by disgraced speaker Peter Slipper about her and female genitalia.
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Text message exchanges between Mr Slipper and former staffer James Ashby were made public today in which Mr Slipper describes Mrs Mirabella as a "ignorant botch (sic)", hours after booting her from the chamber.
The text read: “Bright though she loses the plot! Perhaps as you say ‘an ignorant botch (sic)’.”
A text that used offensive language in comparing female genitalia to mussels was also revealed.
Mrs Mirabella has responded to the text messages in television interviews this afternoon, labelling the comments “disgusting”.
Asked on ABC television how she felt on reading the texts, Mrs Mirabella said: “Very sad, actually, and a little bit shocked.”
“As the most important officer in the Parliament, he needs to be an impartial umpire,” she said. “Both his comments about me and about women show he’s utterly unsuitable and incapable of performing that very important role.
“His position is untenable.
“The prime minister … needs to make a public statement about whether she thinks the comments are acceptable and whether she has full confidence that he can continue to do his job.”
Later today, Ms Gillard said she was offended by the content of Mr Slipper’s texts because she was always offended by sexism.
But parliament should wait for the Federal Court to deliver its judgement before MPs made up their minds about the Speaker, she said.
The text messages have emerged during a sexual harassment claim brought by the Speaker’s ex-staffer James Ashby.